Nick Diaz hits weed like he hits opponents—frequently. The 33-year-old MMA fighter and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt from Stockton, Calif., has won many memorable fights and several championships across competitions in UFC, PRIDE, Strikeforce, EliteXC, World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC), DREAM, and Shooto, but his toughest opponent is arguably the Nevada State Athletic Commission. (No disrespect to Georges St-Pierre, Carlos Condit, KJ Noons, Anderson Silva, or anybody else who could pummel us silly.)

On three occasions, the NSAC has fined and suspended Diaz, who is an admitted medical marijuana patient, for positive marijuana tests. Commission Chairman Dr. Tony Alamo claimed cannabis was a performance-enhancer that made him “numb to the pain” and gave him an unfair advantage. In Sept. 2015, following a failed test at UFC 183, the NSAC gave him a five-year suspension—its second-longest behind Wanderlei Silva’s since-overturned 2014 lifetime ban for refusing to submit to a drug test—and fined him $165,000. On appeal, the punishment was later reduced and lifted. Diaz, who, like his younger brother, vaping Nate Diaz, is a cannabis advocate, has pointed out the absurdity of punishing marijuana use in a sport that has been rife with steroid use.